Technical Field
The present invention relates to supplying varying power levels to an instrument and, more particularly, it relates to a power varying pedal which uses a variable resistor to vary the voltage being supplied to an instrument.
Description of the Related Art
It is often the case that workers, professionals or artists are required to operate a hand-held instrument, tool or other device which can be tuned to a variety of different speeds or power levels. For example, tattoo artists operate a tattoo machine or gun when applying artwork to human skin and may adjust the speed of the needle, dentists operate an ultrasonic dental scaler when cleaning a patient's mouth and may adjust the speed at which the scaler vibrates, construction workers operate a drill for boring and may adjust the speed at which the drill rotates, etc.
In order to adjust the speed of the motor or the power level of these instruments, the operator must typically stop working and manually adjust a knob or dial by hand. The knob or dial may be located on a power source associated with the instrument or on the instrument itself. However, touching of the knob may cause health issues, especially in the case involving dentists and tattoo artists, where bodily fluids, blood, germs, pathogens or contaminants may be transferred from the operator's glove to the tuner or, vice versa, from the tuner to the operator's glove. In addition, such adjustments tend to distract the operators from the task at hand, and in some cases may require the operator to turn off the instrument being used. Even further, if the operator wishes to precisely tune the instrument to a specific power level, manually adjusting a dial by hand tends to be difficult, especially in cases where the operator is wearing gloves. Thus, it would be advantageous to allow these operators to adjust the speed or power level of such instruments without having to stop what they are doing and without having to use their hands.